Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an NCAA Division I conference. It is one of the 10 FBS conferences and one of the 5 so-called "power" conferences. History Formation During the 1920s and 30s, the original 13 SEC members were a part of the 23-member Southern Conference. At the conference meetings in December 1932, the members south and west of the Appalachian Mountains, Alabama, Auburn (then Alabama Polytechnic Institute), Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State (then Mississippi A&M), Sewanee, Tennessee, Tulane, and Vanderbilt, left to form the Southeastern Conference. The move was spurred by many issues, including high travel expenses and a ban on postseason play. Membership Changes The SEC continued with little change for eight years until the Sewanee Tigers decided to leave the conference. Sewanee decided to leave the SEC as it served as a annual bottom feeder in the standings, and they wanted to focus more on academics, as well. Georgia Tech would also leave in 1964 to become an independent school. The school decided to leave the conference due to head coach Bobby Dodd's objection to the questionable recruiting tactics of its fellow members. Tulane would do the same in 1966 as it, like Sewanee, decided to focus more time on academics. Both Georgia Tech and Tulane would later become charter members of the Metro Athletic Conference. Expansion Era After staying at 10 teams for years, the SEC decided to take advantage of a NCAA by-law that allowed for conferences with 12 teams to split into divisions and host a championship game by expanding. The SEC first went after Texas and Texas A&M, but the Southwest Conference held on tight to their two most important members. They also targeted Florida State, but the Seminoles instead decided to leave independence to join the Atlantic Coast Conference. The conference would swipe one team away from the Southwestern Conference when it took Arkansas into the league in 1992. They would also add South Carolina in 1992. The Gamecocks were fellow Southern Conference members and ACC charter members that broke off in 1971 due to conflictions with other schools. The SEC would finally get its wish to host a conference championship game in 1992 as Florida and Alabama battle for the title at Legion Field in Birmingham. The expansion set off a rapid shift in the landscape of college football as realignment created and destroyed many other conferences. The Second Expansion College football would be struck again by realignment in the early 2010s as the Big 10 swiped Nebraska from the Big 12 and the PAC-10 offered six Big 12 schools invitations to join with Colorado, and later Mountain West member Utah, joining. The SEC didn't want to be left out of the changes and began looking to expand to 14 teams. First reports said that the conference was looking into adding Texas A&M, who was angered by Texas' overreaching influence in its own conference. After giving the school a 72-hour deadline to decide between the SEC and PAC-12, the Aggies chose to join the SEC. Later reports said that the SEC was looking at Big East member West Virginia and numerous ACC members. The rumors about West Virginia were unfounded and the ACC raised its exit fees in order to stop realignment within amongst its members. In late 2011, the Big 12 announced that Missouri would not return for the following season for reasons unknown. Missouri announced that they were the SEC a few days later. SEC commissioner announced a new 20-year television deal to start in 2014 with ESPN that would create a new SEC Network TV channel. The channel helped generate $455 million in revenue for the conference in its first year. Membership References A Brief History of the Southeastern Conference Southeastern Conference Category:NCAA FBS Conferences